Router planes or routers are fitted with a relatively narrow cutter and are generally used to form or refine a recess in a work piece. Typically a body having a sole for contact with a work piece is held and manipulated by two handles or knobs attached to the body, and a cutter having a cutting arris on a foot projecting from a the cutter shank is secured to the body to project below the sole.
The blade or cutter in router planes has usually been a sharpened foot projecting at approximately a right angle from a shank or shaft that is secured in the plane body in a position orthogonal to the router sole. Such a blade is usually secured to an upstanding post portion of the plane body also orthogonal to the router sole, typically with a collar that encircles the blade shaft or shank and upstanding post, and a thumbscrew threaded into the collar bears against the post to tighten the collar. Early router planes held the blade or cutter in place solely by friction, and positioning was accomplished by loosening the collar and sliding the blade to a new position. Later improvements used a thumbnut traveling on a threaded rod fixed in the plane body to adjust the position of the cutter.
Notwithstanding such improvements, the depth of cut and position of blades have often been difficult to adjust accurately and repeatably in prior router planes. Alternatives for lateral positioning of the blade or cutter have also been limited.
Consequently, there remains a need for an improved router plane.